Archive for July, 2014

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 7/30/14

Despite the fact the nation’s highest court took the state of Massachusetts to task for passing a law curtailing the free speech rights of pro-life advocates, the Bay State is again trying to suppress them.

In their ruling, the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law that created a 35-foot “buffer zone” restricting pro-life advocates from speaking with people entering abortion facilities.

Saying the abortion buffer zone is “inconsistent with the First Amendment,”the Supreme Court ruled that that the buffer zone violated the First Amendment because it “restricts access to ‘public way[s]’ and ‘sidewalk[s],’ places that have traditionally been open for speech activities.”

Now, Massachusetts lawmakers have responded with a vengeance — passing a radical bill that prohibits free speech for pro-lifers seeking to help women.

Today, Governor Deval Patrick, who is a staunch abortion proponent and a former board member of Planned Parenthood, signed the bill into law.

The attorney for Eleanor McCullen, the lead plaintiff in the 9-0 decision in McCullen v. Coakley, emailed LifeNews about the bill. Michael DePrimo told LifeNews.com:

“The new buffer zone law is a backdoor attempt to interfere with the constitutional right of free speech in the service of women seeking abortion whose minds are not made up – women who are looking for the hope, help, love, and concrete aid offered by Eleanor McCullen and other peaceful sidewalk counselors. This new law chills life-saving speech by threatening massive civil fines for non-violent acts such as peacefully offering a leaflet of information to passersby on a public sidewalk.

The reality is that individuals in the abortion industry have a business incentive to falsely characterize any attempt at pro-life communication on the public ways outside abortion clinics as a form of harassment or intimidation, no matter how peaceful. It is important for law enforcement to understand that momentary attempts at peaceful communication to offer hope, help and love are constitutionally protected expressive conduct, despite the legislature’s rejection of an amendment offered by Representative Jim Lyons that would have made that expressly clear.

If a citizen is threatening public safety, he or she can be arrested under current state or federal law, and then enjoined by a

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judge based on evidence and testimony. The new law signed by the Governor ignores those common resources, and instead invites state censorship by enabling police to order peaceful citizens to stand on a 25-foot line for the remainder of the abortion clinics’ business hours. The new law is unconstitutional not only because it is vague and overbroad, but also because it purports to grant to law enforcement the power to issue a temporary restraining order—a power that may only be exercised by courts.

The first amendment protection of free speech cannot be placed behind painted lines. My client Eleanor McCullen and the other peaceful sidewalk counselors will continue to serve the women of Boston who deserve real alternatives to abortion. We will closely monitor law enforcement’s use of the new law to ensure that our clients’ peaceful exercise of first amendment rights is not infringed.”

Anne Fox of Massachusetts Citizens for Life told LifeNews that abortion activists told legislators during debate in the legislature false tales of pro-lifers harassing women.

“Planned Parenthood employs a huge number of people in the state who all drone on about their abuse by pro-lifers. No legislator picked up on the pro-lifers’ demands for pictures or videos of the alleged incidents,”she said.

Fox said pro-abortion lawmakers will rush the bill through the legislature.

“As fast as they can get it through the House and signed, Massachusetts will have a law which is worse than the old Buffer Zone. It effectively creates a 25-foot zone and the penalties are scary – $50,000 and three years in jail,”she said. “The legislature is in the process of disrespecting the Supreme Court and penalizing law-abiding citizens. I do think all the other places that have suspended their Buffer Zones will pass laws like this one. At least Massachusetts will have company in its foolishness.”

During the hearing, when the pro-lifers had a chance to speak, Eleanor McCullen, an elderly woman who has spent years helping women find abortion alternatives, and other pro-life advocates explained that it would be counterproductive to their efforts to save babies from abortion and help women to treat pregnant women badly.

“Phil Moran, the local lawyer for the McCullen win, compared the new zone to the penalty box where the counselors would always be,”Fox told LifeNews about the hearing. “State Representatives Jim Lyons and Marc Lombardo spoke. Jim pointed out that these same people say “The Supreme court has spoken” about Roe v Wade. Now they have no use for the Court. Marc stated that this proposed law is so outrageous that it will definitely be appealed and cited the costs in time and money that will be associated with the appeal – the McCullen case has already cost many millions.”

Ann Coulter Letter

It’s been reported everywhere — the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News — that the William Wilberforce Sex Trafficking Act requires that any non-Mexican children who show up on our border be admitted and given a hearing. (New York Times, July 7, 2014: “Immigrant Surge Rooted in Law to Curb Child Trafficking.”)

The problem, we’ve been told, is that a loophole in the sex trafficking law mandates these hearings — or “removal proceedings.”

But there is no such loophole.

The fact that people on both sides of the aisle are telling the same lie about this law is worrisome. Are Republicans being tricked into thinking we need an emergency bill, so that, two weeks later, we’ll see them emerging from a conference, saying:

We fixed the loophole! We didn’t get everything we wanted, but you can hear about that later.

No, tell me now.

Well, remember amnesty? It’s kind of in this bill. But the headline is: We closed the loophole! So no more worries about that loophole. But yeah, amnesty passed.

Why else would everyone be carrying on about a non-existent loophole? I know they’re mistaken because I read the law.

The Wilberforce law states, in relevant part:

“Any unaccompanied alien child sought to be removed by the Department of Homeland Security, except for an unaccompanied alien child from a contiguous country (i.e. Mexico — or Canada, so as not to sound discriminatory) … shall be — placed in removal proceedings … eligible for relief … at no cost to the child and provided access to counsel.”

Obviously, that’s the whole ball of wax. Once a kid is in, given La Raza attorneys and a hearing date, he’s never going home. No immigration judge is going to listen to a lawyer-manufactured sob story and say, “No, I’m sorry, that didn’t touch my heart. You have to go back to Huehuetenango.”

But the law’s definition of “unaccompanied alien child” limits the hearings to kids who have no relatives in the United States. If your relatives live here, the law assumes you’re not being sex-trafficked — you’re trying to join them.Here’s the definition — note subsection (C):”(g) Definitions

“(2) the term ‘unaccompanied alien child’ means a child who –

(A) has no lawful immigration status in the United States;

(B) has not attained 18 years of age; and

(C) with respect to whom –

(i) there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States; or (ii) no parent or legal guardian in the United States is available to provide care and physical custody.”

The law is not — as George Will suggested on “Fox News Sunday” — a general humanitarian mandate allowing all 2 billion poor children of the world to show

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up at our border and be told, “Welcome to America!” It’s a law to combat sex trafficking.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Vice President Joe Biden wrote the law — and Feinstein isn’t stupid. She’s well aware of illegal immigration. That’s why the law specifically excludes two huge categories of illegal aliens from getting hearings: (1) Mexicans; and (2) children who have relatives in the U.S.

Mexicans make up the lion’s share of illegal immigrants in the U.S., and children with relatives already living in the U.S. are probably just trying to rejoin family — not trying to escape a fiendish kidnapper about to sell them into sex slavery.

According to last Friday’s New York Times, almost 90 percent of the 53,000 illegal alien kids given refugee status since October have already been transferred to parents or relatives living in the U.S. By the law’s clear terms, those 47,000 kids should have been summarily turned away at the border — just as Mexican children are.

(Democrats wailing about a “humanitarian” crisis — after calculating the precise number of voters they need — evidently don’t care about the Mexican kids.)

No law needs to be fixed. The only thing that needs to be fixed is the president.

Obama has gone mad and is defying the law in order to “fundamentally transform America” — as he pledged to do during the 2008 campaign — into Latin America. (Luckily for George Will, he won’t be around by the time Latin America gets to his neighborhood.)

Constitutionally, the remedy for a president defying the law so he can assist an alien invasion is impeachment. But the media won’t let us impeach Obama — and Republicans don’t have the votes, anyway. The only way for Americans to fight back is to put large Republican majorities in the House and Senate this November.

Some time this week, 27-year-old Meriam Ibrahim is expected to arrive among relatives in Manchester, New Hampshire.

She made international news for being sentenced to death in Sudan for her Christian faith, but she was able to get to Rome on July 24 and will be in Manchester soon.

According to the Washington Examiner, “she and her family fled Sudan following the overturning of her conviction in late June.” However, she was arrested again for allegedly “falsifying travel documents” as she and her family tried to get to the United States.

CNN reports that she and her family were then “confined to a safe house in Sudan” until they were able to flee to Italy.

Once in Italy, Meriam’s husband Daniel called relatives in New Hampshire to say they were coming home.

Meriam was originally detained in mid-January. Upon receiving her death sentence she told the court, “I am a Christian, and I will remain a Christian.”

HOUSTON, Texas–The federal government is in dire need of U.S. citizens willing to house the thousands of illegal immigrants who enter the country each week, and they are willing to pay them to do so.

The Texas-based nonprofit Catholic Charities is currently seeking out foster familiesfor the migrants, most of whom come from Central America. A spokeswoman for the organization told Breitbart Texas that foster families can receive monthly payments for housing adult immigrants who are under 23-years-old.

“Most of our children are 15 to 17-years-old,” she said. “But some stay in our program until they are 22-years-old; if they’re still working on getting their high school diploma, they can stay until they’re that age.”

The revelation that some of the migrants receiving foster care are adults will likely come as a surprise to many; the mainstream media has largely portrayed the border crisis as involving only children and family units.

The spokeswoman mentioned that foster families will be given $40 per day to care for each migrant they take in from Catholic Charities.The assistance is funded by the federal government, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.

Foster parents have the ability to collect more than $7,400 per month, considering that they can house six immigrants at any given time.

The spokeswoman said that the illegal immigrants are provided with taxpayer subsidized education, health care, transportation, and an “allowance.” She was not specific about the amount of such an allowance or how often it is administered.

Many have expressed outrage that instead of being turned away at the border, many illegal aliens are being brought to federal facilities where they receive a slew of taxpayer-subsidized benefits: housing, food, vocational training, English lessons, recreation, and legal counsel. Ultimately, most of the migrants are released onto U.S. soil after promising to show up at an immigration court hearing.

July 18, 2014 – 10:23 AM

(CNSNews.com)– When asked whether legalizing illegal immigrants would help unemployed Americans, Rep. Chris VanHollen (D.-Md.) responded by pointing to testimony from the director of the Congressional Budget Office that VanHollen said indicated enactment of the Senate immigration bill (which gave illegal aliens a “path to citizenship’) would “reduce the deficit and increase long-term economic growth.”CNSNews.com asked: “Do you think that allowing illegal aliens to stay in the United States and putting them on a path to citizenship will help unemployed Americans?”

Van Hollen responded: “I think what we need to do is pass comprehensive immigration reform, and I just came from a hearing with the non-partisan director of the Congressional Budget Office, who testified that if you passed the Senate bipartisan bill, you will reduce the deficit and increase long-term economic growth in the United States,” Van Hollen replied.

CNSNews.com asked Van Hollen the question at the “Witness Wednesdays: Voices of the Unemployed” event on Capitol Hill. The same question was also put to Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), who objected that the question implied “that we want to encourage illegal immigration.”

Kildee responded: “I think we need to have an immigration policy that is welcoming and open. If we’re talking about specifically the children who are fleeing their countries because of the risk that they’re facing, I think it’s a false dichotomy. I think we can be a welcoming nation and also support the people who live here and are struggling.”

When CNSNews.com repeated the question, Kildee replied: “Which illegal aliens are you speaking of? The question implies that we want to encourage illegal immigration, and we should not do that. But what we should have is immigration policy that fits the needs of the current, of the 21st century.”

“So I don’t believe that the question before Congress is whether or not we should allow illegal aliens here, but whether we should deal with the fact that there are 11 million people in this country that are undocumented, and that they are here and should have a pathway to legitimacy,”he told CNSNews.com.

“They’ve been contributing to the economy, and I think it’s a false choice to say that in order to take care of the people who are unemployed, we can no longer be a nation that is welcoming to immigration.”

Kildee is cosponsoring a bill that would extend unemployment benefits. “Since this vital lifeline lapsed, millions of families have struggled to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and pay their bills,”he said in a statement.

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